tgb87 said:
Thank you for your replies. I'm trying my best to recall what exactly happened by reading about others' experiences with being stopped at Canadian POEs without meeting RO. It's been a few years but here's what likely happened:
1) I was questioned and the IO decided I wasn't fulfilling my requirements. But they said they couldn't stop me from entering.
2) Fingerprints were taken, was interviewed by another senior officer who asked if I had any H&C grounds. I said I didn't.
3) Acknowledged I may lose my PR status if I didn't appeal in 30 days. Lawyer said: no chance.
4) Most likely issued with a "departure order" that I must have signed. I distinctly remember a warning that if I didn't leave within 30 days I would get a "deportation order."
5) When I left (in 2 days) I submitted the form I was given (and might have signed some docs[no memory]) but funnily I didn't get a "departure certificate" that everyone has been given. I haven't received anything in the mail either.
Even though this was an unpleasant experience, I've had far worse. I've been taken to secondary screening and made to wait hours twice in the USA (once the officer asked another why he had to deal with this piece of sh**).
Apparently a "departure order" is a "removal order." Was I "removed" or "required to leave?" Or since I left within the 30 days was I correct to assume that it wasn't a "removal" or a "requirement to leave?" The stupid part about UK visa applications is the lack of an interview.
I have asked for my travel records under the privacy act. This may make things a little more clear. Is that a good idea?
It
appears you were issued a Removal Order, sometimes referred to as a Departure Order. Since you were a PR at the time, that order was
NOT automatically enforceable. If you appealed, the Removal Order would not have been enforceable unless and until the appeal was decided and you lost the appeal. Since you did not appeal, it became enforceable thirty days later. By then you had left.
If you had stayed in Canada after the Removal or Departure Order became enforceable, you would then be subject to deportation. Since you left before that, you were not deported, there were no proceedings to remove or deport you.
You lost your PR status as of the day the Removal or Departure Order became enforceable.
Since (as it
appears) you left prior to any proceedings to actually deport you, you were not "removed" from Canada.
For a question like "were you required to leave [a country]?" I am not sure how to respond. Foreign Nationals are "required," in a legal sense, to leave whenever their temporary status to be in the country ends. Such questions, however, are usually in reference to actual removal or deportation proceedings.
Mostly, it appears you left the country voluntarily, under no order to leave Canada (again, a Removal Order issued to a PR at a PoE is not automatically enforceable). The terms the government uses can indeed be confusing. For example, to issue you the Removal Order an officer and the Minister's delegate had to determine you were
"inadmissible," and yet as a PR you were entitled to be admitted into Canada.
No need to be thrown off by how confusing the terms are.
Main thing is you do not have PR status. You timely left Canada before losing status to remain in Canada. You did nothing wrong. There is no penalty. Yes, you lost PR status, not as a penalty so much as you simply failed to meet the requirements for maintaining PR status, and thus were not qualified to continue being a PR.
As far as Canada is concerned, you are a Foreign National much like any other person carrying a passport from your home country.
